Out-of-home advertising - Statistics & Facts

Global overview

Out of home advertising (OOH) is advertising designed to reach consumers when they are not home. Examples of OOH media formats include digital billboards, posters, in-flight advertising, arena and stadium advertising. While OOH ads have been around for quite some time, this type of advertising still remains relevant in the industry, as digital technology constantly offers new ways to reach consumers outside of their homes. Global out-of-home advertising expenditure is projected to grow in the coming years. Much of OOH revenue grow projection can be attributed to digital platforms rather than physical ones. By 2019, digital platforms are forecast to account for 41.8 percent of the total out-of-home ad spend in the world. French multinational corporation JCDecaux, American companies Clear Channel Outdoor, Outfront Media, Lamar and Chinese company Focus Media are the five largest outdoor advertising companies in the world.

U.S. market
The OOH advertising market in the U.S. shows healthy forecasts. OOH ad spending in the U.S. is expected to increase from an estimate of 9.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 to just over 10.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Billboards have the highest reach amongst OOH advertising types in the U.S. – about 80 percent of American consumers stated noticing a billboard ad in 2016. That year, there was a total 370,000 billboards in the country. Printed signs in various venues had the second highest reach in the country. Billboards or other out-of-home ads often instigate responses from customers such as looking up information about the advertiser on their smartphones, or talking about the ad or product with others. Comcast Corp. is the leading outdoor advertiser in the U.S., followed by McDonald’s, Time Warner, Apple and T-Mobile.

U.S. DOOH market
Digital OOH advertising platforms are forecast to gain space in the U.S. market. By 2019, about 57.5 percent of the total OOH ad spend in the U.S. will be generated by digital platforms, up from an estimate of 44.2 percent in 2016. In total, nearly 4.5 billion U.S. dollars are expected to be spent on digital out-of-home advertising in the U.S. by 2019, an increase of approximately 1.2 billion U.S. dollars from the 2016 figure. Digital place-based network (DPN) is the most profitable type of digital out-of-home media in the U.S., followed by digital billboards and signage (DBB). In fact, the medium is effective as consumers in the U.S. often recall advertising on digital billboards. In 2015, about 82 percent stated remembering a digital billboard, and 75 percent said they noticed a digital billboard in the last month.

Canadian market
The Canadian OOH market shows a similar trend. Out-of-home ad spent in Canada is forecast to increase from an estimate of 760 million Canadian dollars in 2016 to 892 million Canadian dollars in 2019. Digital is the most promising OHH ad format. Spending in digital OHH is projected to nearly double between 2013 and 2019. Out-of-home advertising in Canada, both physical and digital, appears to reach young adults more often than other age groups. According to a 2016 survey, about 62 percent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 had seen static OOH ads in the week prior to the survey, and 48 percent saw digital OHH ads. This share stood at 56 percent and 45 percent among the group of respondents aged between 50 and 64 years old.

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